Epistrepho: Making the Right Turn

Word of the Week

March 1, 2025

Epistrephō: Making the Right Turn

 

[Paul] kept declaring both to those of Damascus first, and also at Jerusalem and then throughout all the region of Judea, and even to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, performing deeds appropriate to repentance.

Acts 26:20NASB

Anyone who has driven through Atlanta can understand how it happens.  You enter the maze from the North, aiming to make it through town and head south toward Florida.  After a few miles weaving through stop-and-go traffic, changing lanes and trying to keep track of the signs.

All goes well for a while until you notice that the mileage markers are going up, not down.  You’re headed north, not south.  After 10 or 20 miles, you decide “I’m going the wrong way!”

It’s time to turn off and pick a new direction.

The same thing happens in life.  We’re moving through the events of daily life and we realize that we’re headed the wrong way.  It’s time to turn around!

The New Testament tells us a lot about turning around, and we can get wise guidance on making the right turn by examining the Greek word for “turn.”

The word is epistrephō [eh-pee-STREH-foh] which appears 36 times in the New Testament. The standard translations are “to turn, to return.”

Half of the time, epistrephō is a description of physical motion.

It can mean that you “return”; you go back to the place where you started out.

• Mary and Joseph went back to Galilee after their stay in Egypt with the baby Jesus (Luke 2:39).
• Jesus warned that a demon might return to reinhabit a man, even after being expelled (Matthew 12:44).

Or it can mean that you swivel in place, turning in a different direction.

• Peter turned from a conversation with Jesus, looking over his shoulder to see John (John 21:20).
• When a woman touched Christ’s garment, he turned around to see who did it (Mark 5:30).
• A demon-possessed girl was following Paul in Philippi shouting that he was a spokesman for God. Irritated, Paul turned around and cast out the demon (Acts 16:18).
• John heard a voice on the island of Patmos and turned around to see who was speaking to him (Revelation 1:12).

As you can see, this is a word that can describe a variety of actions, all involving a change of direction.  You might be in motion or you might turn in place, but you are reorienting yourself to reality.

The other half of the appearances of this word in Scripture are descriptions of mental or moral turnarounds.  It depicts a decisive switch from one thing to another.

What do you turn FROM?

Idolatry (Acts 14:15)

Idols (1 Thessalonians 1:9)

Darkness and the dominion of Satan (Acts 26:18)

What do you turn TO?

God (Luke 1:16; Acts 15:19; Acts 26:18)

The living God (Acts 14:15)

The true God (1 Thessalonians 1:9)

The Lord (Acts 9:35; 11:21)

Light (Acts 26:18)

In many of these verses, epistrephō is a good one-word description of becoming a follower of Jesus.  You have been following one path – one that leads to death.  And now you are going in the opposite direction, pursuing the One who gives life.

The word itself could cover good or bad turns, sincere or insincere “conversions,”  But when you examine its use in context, it is clearly talking about a decisive change in allegiance, moving from the dominion of darkness to the kingdom of light.

Specifically in Acts 26:20, Paul strengthens the word by pairing it with the word for “repent.”  And he adds the fact that this kind of turnaround results in the kind of actions that go appropriately with repentance.

The moral of the story:  If you the road signs say that you’re headed for New Jersey, don’t expect to see Miami any time soon.  If you want to go to Florida, turn around!

 

 

Study Hint:

This word is an excellent example of the fact that words have multiple meanings.  Epistrephō can mean a geographical change of direction.  It can mean a physical shift of your body.  But it can also have a figurative sense of a spiritual change of direction.  These ideas appear in the New Testament in roughly equal numbers.  Therefore, we need to look at the context of each verse to determine what kind of turn it describes.

 

Coming Up

In Philippians 4:12, Paul says he has learned the secret of contentment.  He uses an unusual Greek word to describe this learning experience, and we will dig into it next week.

Ezra Project 2025